Eight days before the New York primary, Republican presidential candidate John Kasich appeared before a packed La Salle Gymnasium in North Greenbush Monday Afternoon.
The Ohio governor fell right in with a somewhat laid-back crowd as he walked through some of the perils of presidential politics. He spoke briefly before engaging in a question and answer session with people in the audience, including one about Social Security from a 16-year-old girl.
“We don’t have to monkey around with the retirement age anymore. What we have to do is make sure that those who have had income, are going to get it, but not as much as what they thought they were gonna get, for those who really have very little income and fully depend on it, that they can get it.” Kasich told the girl the system can be fixed but only if both parties work on it together.
Kasich, who trails in the polls, hit on a variety of issues including Social Security, debt , tolerance and the Iran nuclear deal.
“If they violate it, our European allies and us should walk away from put the sanctions back on.”
He offered his take on ISIS: “What we have to do is make sure that we have not just the military expertise through NATO, but we have to transform it into an intelligence and policing organization, cause we have to know where these people are and we gotta go and stop them.”
Kasich has 143 delegates, compared to 545 for Cruz and 743 for Trump.
